“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted; the indifference of those who should have known better; the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most; that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
Haile Selassie

Out of 1,542 votes cast, the Texas congressman and libertarian hero earned 618 of them -- a decisive 39.7 percent in a field of 10. Former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who cancelled his scheduled appearance here due to a summer cold -- and whose aggressive straw vote efforts took place beneath the radar and were rumored to include paying the way of his supporters to New Orleans -- was second with 24.8 percent. Michele Bachmann came in third at 12.4 percent.

Mitt Romney, who leads the GOP field in fundraising, name identification and national polling, finished a distant fifth, behind pizza magnate Herman Cain. Romney, who made a point of not signing a sweeping pro-life pledge offered by the Susan B. Anthony List because he thought it went too far, did not even reach 5 percent. The rest of the field, in order, was Newt Gingrich (4.5 percent), Sarah Palin (2.7 percent), Rick Santorum (2 percent), Tim Pawlenty (1.2 percent), and Gary Johnson and Buddy Roemer with less than 1 percent each.

Ron Paul continues to excite a lot of Republican activists. As I've long said, there is a sizable libertarian wing of the Republican Party.

Texas Governor Rick Perry

I don't get how a "cold" could have sidelined Huntsman. I've never had a "cold" that kept me from something I really wanted to do. A flu, yes, but a cold, no.

The article continues, noting that Texas Governor Rick Perry spoke at the event and was well received:

Among the Republicans in attendance here, the anticipation Saturday wasn't for the straw vote results or Ron Paul, however. It was for the arrival of another Texas politician, Gov. Rick Perry, who wasn't listed on the straw poll ballot and who has so far left only cryptic hints that he might run for president in 2012. But Perry arrived here amid much fanfare late Saturday afternoon, and delivered a rousing and well-received speech to a packed auditorium.

After three days and dozens of speeches bashing President Obama and liberalism, this crowd didn't need to hear a lot more of it, but Perry distilled his critique of the administration into a single phrase: "Too much interference, too much spending, and too much apologizing."

Displaying undeniable presence from the podium, Perry did the obligatory invoking of Ronald Reagan, but to a specific purpose: to forcefully assert his view that the two great strains of the modern Republican Party -- economic libertarianism and social conservatism -- are not incompatible. "Our party cannot listen to our loudest opponents on the left," he said, in a subtle dig at Mitt Romney. "They are never going to like us, so it's time we stopped trying to curry favor with them."

When he finished, the crowd rose to its feet and -- in the loudest and most spontaneous demonstration of the three-day meeting -- broke into a clapping chant, "Run, Rick, run! Run, Rick, run!"

The hall emptied after Perry finished, and as the crowd filed out, one Republican, Robert C. Munger of New Orleans, said, "That's the next president of the United States." He added: "They're all good -- there's not a bad candidate up there -- but he's the best we've got. He's got the fire and the experience. He's a proven product. Just look at the state of Texas, where it is today."

Whether Perry will heed this call -- and whether any of this theater in New Orleans this weekend will matter when the voting actually commences next year -- remains to be seen. Romney, Pawlenty, and Huntsman did not show up here this week. The other four candidates who appeared in Monday's New Hampshire debate -- Paul, Bachmann, Gingrich and Herman Cain -- did make the scene, as did former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson and former Louisiana Gov. Buddy Roemer. ...

I'm still trying to learn all the candidates' positions on the issues to see who I want to support. Obviously, I'm not interested in RINO Romney, although organizationally I expect him to be one of the two remaining Republican finalists. I'm looking for the alternative to Romney, a candidate who can put together fiscal and social conservatives, the formula required for Republicans to win presidential elections for the past 50 years. I like the fact Perry, unlike most of the other Republican candidates, didn't buy into the man is causing dangerous global warming junk science that public opinion has now turned sharply against. I also like that Perry has a more moderate opinion on immigration and has strong Latino support. I have yet to hear a good case against Perry. He certainly seems to have charisma that a lot of other candidates, such as former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty does not have.

Still, after my 2008 election interest in having actor and then Senator Fred Thompson run for President, I've learned that when a candidate delays entering the race, as Thompson did, it might be a sign he doesn't have the fire in the belly necessary to make the personal sacrifice necessary to win a grueling nomination to be President. The fact that Perry is still holding out from getting in makes me concerned he doesn't want it badly enough.

16 comments:

Whatever Perry is does not include being a defender of individual liberty.

Goodbye, Number Fivehttp://liten.be//WH3GW

I've never understood the "RINO" designation. Those politicians called RINOS seem to represent the soul of the Republican party, and its major vote-getters. Romney, for instance, leads in most polls among Republican voters. So, is it Republican voters who are RINOs?

I looked at the website. All it does is talk about a Texas court Fifth Amendment decision about a DUI blood draw. Gov. Perry is only mentioned because he's from Texas. Apparrently this blogger doesn't have a problem with guilty by association. If Gov. Perry supported the decision, this article doesn't reveal that.

I keep asking for problems with Gov. Perry, and nobody has been able to build a credible case against the man. Maybe I have the right person to support.

As for Perry, he attended Bilderberg, a few times. He's a friend of AIPAC.

In 1984, Perry was elected to the Texas House of Representatives as a Democrat from a district (64) that included his home county of Haskell. He served on the House Appropriations and Calendars committees during his three two-year terms in office. He befriended fellow freshman state representative Lena Guerrero of Austin, a staunch liberal Democrat who endorsed Perry's reelection bid in 2006 on personal, rather than philosophical, grounds. Perry was part of the "Pit Bulls", a group of Appropriations members who sat on the lower dais in the committee room (or "pit") who pushed for austere state budgets during the 1980s.

Perry supported Al Gore in the 1988 Democratic presidential primaries and was chairman of the Gore campaign in Texas.

In 1989, The Dallas Morning News named him one of the most effective legislators in the 71st Legislature. That same year, Perry announced that he was joining the Republican Party.

He's also a land grabber, trying to steal people's property under eminent domain for the Trans-Texas Corridor.

Rick Perry is a big government type who used an executive order to try to force Texas children entering 6th grade to be injected with Gardasil, a drug to prevent sexually transmitted diseases.

That still is not a very strong indictment of Perry. He used to be a Democrat. Big deal. So did Ronald Reagan.

As far as the immunization matter, I would have gone the other way, but the other side has a valid point. You're talking about a $120 shot that is the difference between life and death of people who get the disease.

As far as being a "land grabber" because he was using eminent domain for a highway, there isn't a jurisidiction in the country that doesn't use eminent domain for a highway. You have to. Now if you want to make an argument the road wasn't needed, that might be valid. But to accuse someone of wrongdoing for using eminent domain to build a highway, that doesn't hold up. It's not like some abuses of eminent domain where they're using it for purely private commercial interests.

As far as signing the seat belt law, I don't agree with that, but it could also have been that the feds were threatenign to cut off highway money if he didn't sign it.

I'm still waiting for good arguments to be made against Perry, and I'm not hearing it. By the way, why would you Cato, a libertarian leaning individual, be against Perry voting for an "austere" budget in the 1980s? I don't get that one.

Paul, Bilderberger and AIPAC are easily enough to scare me away from him.

AIPAC makes him a straight-up neocon and more loyal to a foreign government than his own.

Saturday, August 15, 2009Christy Hoppe

AUSTIN – While in Israelthis week, Gov. Rick Perry picked up an award designating him as a "Defender of Jerusalem." The distinction is relatively new, but it has an intriguing background – and another Texas tie.

. . .

Aguiar created and sponsored the Defender of Jerusalem award, which is given to dignitaries who have demonstrated strong support for Israel.

Also,

“. . . Gov. Rick Perry is headed to Israel to receive the Friend of Zion Award for his ‘leadership in homeland defense, border security, and economic development. . . . Gov. Rick Perry and First Lady Anita Perry today left on a seven-day trip to visit the Middle East nations of Israel and Jordan. In Israel, Gov. Perry will receive the ‘Friend of Zion Award’ from the Global Leadership Council for his leadership in homeland defense, border security and economic development. The award, which is given to ‘leaders who have played key roles in promoting the close alliance between America and the Jewish state,’ will be presented during a ceremony in Jerusalem at the historic Western Wall Square.

“Perry is also scheduled to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, former Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and former Prime Minister and newly elected President Shimon Peres. In addition, he will meet with the Israeli Chief Scientist, Dr. Eli Opper, and several representatives of the aeronautics, defense systems, homeland security and biotechnology industries. . . .”

Texas Governor Perry, a protégé of Karl Rove, is very good at acting like a down-home populist, but that’s all it is – an act. Perry is George W. Bush 2.0.

While spewing Tea Party-style rhetoric about secession, shooting coyotes and courting the favor of Christian evangelicals, behind closed doors Perry has been quietly selling out Texas to globalist interests, auctioning off highways to foreign companies to turn them into profit-driven toll roads.“Speculation that Perry is the Bilderberg group’s ace card was prompted by the current political climate, which can largely be gleaned from the fact that Perry is a longtime, unwavering supporter of the NAFTA Superhighway and related infrastructure projects,” wrote AFP’s Jim Tucker earlier this month. “These pave the way for the Bilderberg-supported North American Union (NAU) proposal that would merge the U.S., Canada and Mexico.”Perry has also given enthusiastic support to former Mexican President Vicente Fox’s efforts to turn Texas into a sanctuary state for illegal immigrants. He also aggressively promoted the Rockefeller Foundation-backed HPV vaccination campaign in Texas that has led to deaths worldwide. David Rockefeller is a prominent Bilderberger, attending each annual meeting without fail.

Obama himself was reportedly vetted by Bilderberg when he infamously disappeared to a secret location with Hillary Clinton in June 2008 in Northern Virginia, at precisely the same time and location the Bilderberg Group were convening in Chantilly.

In a comparatively weak GOP field, the establishment cannot take any chances in allowing Ron Paul to gain momentum as the only candidate who has a real chance of defeating Barack Obama.

As polls have shown, out of the Republican candidates, only Ron Paul has a realistic hope of success in a hypothetical run off against Obama – the other candidates are equally unpopular as the President.

I wrote off Rick Perry quite a while ago for the reasons (and more) indicated above, as he is another phony Texas Republican, though I think Obama is basically George Bush 2.0 - Perry would be Version Three.

No refusal' gives officers more leeway to draw bloodhttp://liten.be//6Z85h

Tests show the woman who hit Matt and Josh had a blood alcohol level of .17. Erica Kolanowski had to give a blood sample because the collision caused serious bodily injury and death.But, a new law requires police all across Texas get breath or blood samples for a multitude of DWI crimes. No warrant is necessary.

"This is huge," said Richard Alpert, Tarrant County's assistant district attorney. "The law applies to DWI suspects with two or more convictions, or a child in the car or to those who cause even relatively minor crashes. If you're a habitual offender, if you put children at risk, if you cause injury to anyone on the roadway, you're no longer going to have the ability to hide evidence."

Alpert estimated it could mean close to 1,000 DWI suspects forced to surrender blood evidence every year in Tarrant County alone.

"From our stand point, those cases are going to be much easier to prove," he said.

The bill requiring blood draws was attached to a law on boating and drinking. Many police, and even prosecutors, weren't even aware of it when Gov. Rick Perry signed it last week.

Alpert said police, prosecutors and laboratories need to get ready because officers will have to "take them somewhere where a qualified person does the blood draw."

"And they can't refuse," he said.

Perry has also supported checkpoints to check drivers' licenses, which is even less justified and more police statish.

@CatoYou fail to state any case for why Texas has a higher percentage of minimum wage jobs, so you connect it with no state government policy.

We know that Texas has a higher percentage of low-skilled immigrant laborers than most states. That could be a factor. It could have a young population, which would be a factor. Rather than LEAPING to conclusions, maybe you should RESEARCH your way to conclusions.

I found this:

http://liten.be//OoAGo

The 474,000 hourly paid Texans earning minimum wage or less in 2009 was an 81 percent increase from 2008, Abbot said. She attributed the big jumps to increases in the federal minimum wage since 2007. It rose from $5.15 to $5.85 in 2007. That was followed by an increase to $6.55 in 2008 before it rose to its current level in July 2009.

Texans earning an hourly wage who made less than the minimum wage actually fell last year to 4.9 percent from 5.8 percent in 2009. Those earning exactly the minimum wage, though, jumped to 4.7 percent last year vs. 2.8 percent in 2009.

“It's possible the number of people being paid the minimum wage may be a reflection of the continuing impact of the recession last year (and) ... that employers were not increasing wages,” Abbot said.

A wage is a measure of productivity, not the dictate of some politician.

About Me

I have been an attorney since the Fall of 1987. I have worked in every branch of government, including a stint as a Deputy Attorney General, a clerk for a judge on the Indiana Court of Appeals, and I have worked three sessions at the Indiana State Senate.
During my time as a lawyer, I have worked not only in various government positions, but also in private practice as a trial attorney handing an assortment of mostly civil cases.
I have also been politically active and run this blog in an effort to add my voice to those calling for reform.